Region abuzz with talk of Zimmerman trial

It was the boring part. The anger was at a low hum beneath the blast of the TV, playing at the volume's tinny threshold in this Sarasota barbershop.

The jury rules blasted before the start of deliberations Friday in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, a courtroom drama that has captivated the nation, this state, this town, this shop in Newtown.

Brawny men with tattoos cut hair and argued, pointing their combs, above the noise and over the crowd of neighbors who came to watch. They joked about stealing Skittles and wearing hoodies.

Teithis Miller, a black 15-year-old with silver braces and a soft voice, kept to himself among them, waiting patiently for a haircut at Phatheadz Barbershop.

“I kind of feel how it is,” he said.

“I live in a neighborhood with a lot of white people, and they sometimes look at us like, ‘What are you doing here?' ”

Miller lives in the Indian Beach neighborhood and is about to begin his freshman year at Booker High. To honor Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed by Zimmerman, the teenager has blacked out his profile picture on Twitter.

The jury could convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder or manslaughter in Martin's death or could acquit the defendant, who is claiming self-defense.

In defiant tones that ran counter to his reserved demeanor, Miller said he thought Zimmerman would be better served by a conviction. Because “if he gets out, I think somebody is going to get him.”

There is a static but palpable anger in Sarasota's black community. The city's white leaders know it.

Police Chief Bernadette DiPino has tried to pre-empt any potential for violence with calls for peaceful protest in the event of a Zimmerman acquittal. She stood near a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. in north Sarasota on Thursday and lit a candle for Trayvon Martin.

Other jurisdictions, including Bradenton, have taken precautions in lockstep with community and church leaders and are preparing for unrest.

Indeed, it has become an American experience to expect outrcry in cases that draw such deep divisions along racial lines. So we wait, for the verdict and the tension to boil over.

Those tensions are especially weighty in communities where acrimony between police and minorities has been percolating for many years, as it has in Sarasota and other cities in Florida.

“If the level of animosity is high already, then there is more concern,” said Ojmarrh Mitchell, an associate professor at the University of South Florida and an expert on race and crime.

Mitchell said he believes the Zimmerman case has gripped this country because of who Martin was — a normal kid who was unjustly profiled.

“I think with many young black people that resonates,” he said. “They've aroused suspicion, but haven't done anything wrong. Except in this case Trayvon is dead.”

But Mitchell has noticed something else about this case:

“I went to a barbershop twice this week, once for me and once for my son, and both times it was on,” he said. “You know these are two different barbershops, and there was wall-to-wall coverage. I've never seen anything like that.”

Carol Krempel has feverishly followed the case since the night Martin was killed.

Krempel called her son, who owns Michael Urban Hair Studio, Friday morning to make sure he would have the trial playing when she came in for a 3 p.m. appointment.

“I wish I could be on the jury,” Krempel said. “I just think he's guilty. He didn't have to kill that young man.”

Michael Krempel was able to stream CNN on his computer, but the jury had gone into deliberations prior to his mother's arrival.

Disappointed, Krempel just talked about the case.

“There will be riots if he's found innocent,” Krempel said. “If there are riots, somebody else will be hurt or killed, and it won't do any good. It won't change the verdict. George Zimmerman will have to be protected.”

Regardless of what the jury decides, Palmetto City Commissioner Charles Smith said the nation — and especially Florida — will feel the impact of this case long after it leaves the courtroom.

“The verdict that comes out may be the biggest verdict in the history of Florida,” he said. “Racial profiling, gun rights, freedom of speech — all of that is tied to the Zimmerman case.

“State laws will change. Gun laws will change. Security will be addressed. It will reshape the state of Florida.”

Farther south, the Lanoue family discussed the case over a late lunch at Chili's on South Tamiami Trail.

“I don't know enough to have a real opinion,” said Steve Lanoue. “I don't know the details of all sides, and I never will because Trayvon Martin is dead.”

Charlene Lanoue said the family somehow ends up at the same restaurant during highly publicized trials: Casey Anthony, Jodi Arias. And now, George Zimmerman.

“It could go either way,” said Charlene, who has explained to their children that even though someone was killed, Zimmerman could be innocent by way of self-defense.

Charlene said the African-American community has been very involved in publicizing the case, and she wonders how circumstances might have been different if the dead young man hadn't been black.

Carolyn Mason, a Sarasota county commissioner and longtime activist for the black community, was turned off by the police chief's message to the black community.

“While the intention I think was good,” Mason said, “I think it was paternalistic. I think it was, in a way. I was a bit offended.”

Mason is among a few leaders in North Sarasota who respond to crime scenes to coordinate community response and try to quell any possible anger.

In June 2012, Mason responded when Sarasota County deputies shot and killed Rodney Mitchell, a 23-year-old black man who had been pulled over for an alleged seatbelt violation. Mitchell tried to flee the scene, nearly hitting a deputy, the Sheriff's Office said. He was also unarmed.

Trying to get the facts and get them to an angry group of onlookers, who were already spreading the word, Mason discovered at the scene that it was Mitchell — her nephew — who had been killed.

Violence was not an appropriate response, she urged. But after the shooting was ruled justified, and as the family continues a lawsuit against the county, she is still reminding people.

“I think there is a striking similarity in the basics of both cases,” she said. “I think the community is putting it together like that.”

Pastor Kelvin Lumpkin, also a leader in the black community, said he agrees that people are conflating the Zimmerman trial with lingering pain from Mitchell's shooting.

But he says the city's police chief made the right call in urging peace before the verdict.

“I think what the chief did was good,” Lumpkin said. “Rodney Mitchell got killed last year, and there's still some open wounds there. There's still some lingering sense of injustice.”